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Speech Communication
21. Speech Communication
Academic and Research Staff
Prof. G. Fant, Prof. K.N. Stevens, Prof. M. Halle,
Prof. S.J. Keyser, Prof. V.W. Zue, Dr. S.E. Blumstein, To
Dr. W.E. Cooper,11 Dr. F.
Grosjean, 12 Dr. C.S. Hawkins, 13
Dr. T.E. Jacobs, Dr. J.A. Jakimik, Dr. P.A. Keating, Dr. D.H. Klatt,
Dr. M. Laferriere,14 Dr. K.L. Landahl, Dr. L.S. Larkey,
Dr. J.I. Makhoul, 15 Dr. L. Menn, 16 Dr. P. Menyuk, 17
Dr. J.L. Miller, 1 Dr. R.N. Ohde, Dr. J.S. Perkell,
Dr. P.J. Price, Dr. S. Shattuck-Hufnagel, Dr. J.R. Westbury,
H. Amorosa, S. Boyce, R.E. Hillman, F. Maehara,
A.K. Syrdal-Lasky, S.-Q. Wang
Graduate Students
T.T. Allard, C.A. Bickley, M.A. Bush, F.R. Chen,
B. Delgutte, M. Hamada, S.K. Holford, D. Huttenlocher,
L.F. Lamel, M.J. Paulik, M. Randolph, S. Seneff, C.H. Shadle
National Institute of Health (Grants 2 T32 NS07047-04 and 5 RO 1 NS04322-18)
C.J. LeBel Fellowship
Kenneth N. Stevens, Dennis H. Klatt, Joseph S. Perkell, Victor W. Zue
The aim of our research in speech communication is to develop models for the production and
perception of words in sentences and to apply this knowledge to problems of communicating with
machines by speech and to the study of communicative disorders and speech development in
children.
10
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Brown University
11
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University
12
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University
Associat e Professor, Department of Psychology and Social Relations, Harvard University
13
Assistant Professor of Communicative Disorders, Emerson College
14
Staff Member, Mitre Corporation, Bedford, Massachusetts
15
Staff Member, Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.
16
Research Associate, Aphasia Research Center, Boston University
17
Professor of Special Education, Boston University
18
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University
RLE P.R. No. 124
Speech Communication
We have carried out a number of studies of the production and perception of different classes of
speech sounds, with a view towards understanding the acoustical and perceptual basis of the
distinctive features and the influences of context on the acoustic manifestations of these features.
For example, we are examining the spectral characteristics of vowels that most influence their
perceived phonetic quality, the influence of word boundaries on the acoustic characteristics of
consonant sequences, the acoustic correlates of nasalization of vowels (both in English in the context
of nasal consonants and in languages that have a nasal-nonasal distinction for vowels), the
characteristics of [I] and [r] and their influence on adjacent vowels, the burst characteristics for
certain voiced and voiceless stop consonants, and the properties of the glottal source as they are
influenced by breathiness and other laryngeal adjustments.
Our ongoing research on various aspects of machine recognition and synthesis of speech includes
1. Projects on word recognition from stored templates and from phonetically based
properties
2. A study of the structure of the sequence of phonetic elements in a large lexicon and the
implications of these constraints for the developmentof a phonetically based word
recognition system
3. Methods for synthesis by rule of a female voice
4. Methods of low bit-rate speech transmission based on back-to-back speech recognition
and synthesis.
We continue to gain insight into the speech planning process through the analysis of speech errors,
both in normal speech and in specially-designed "tongue-twisters."
Our work on the speech
production process includes studies of jaw movements and detailed examination of the precision with
which various articulatory structures need to be controlled in the production of different classes of
vowels.
Our research on mechanisms of auditory processing of speech over the past year has included a
study of the intelligibility of speech processed by a vocoder with critical-band spectral representation,
development of a model for perceptual interpretation of durational cues in English sentences, and
completion of a collaborative study (with Eaton Peabody Laboratory of the Massachusetts Eye and
Ear Infirmary) of the response of single units in the auditory nerve to sounds with speechlike
charcteristics.
Part of our effort has also been devoted to the development of computer-based facilities for speech
research. This includes a physiological signal processing facility and an interactive environment for
the study of the acoustic properties of speech sounds.
RLE P.R. No. 124